Chapter 7: TRAINING AND DEVELOPING EMPLOYEES TO SERVE
Hospitality Principle: Train your employees, then train them some more
Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
Understand the importance of training and development to hospitality organizations
Identify the training methods
Analyse the measures on the effectiveness of training.
Len Berry and colleagues identified five key factors that customers use to judge the overall
quality of service. Of these five, four are directly related to the ability of the service employee.
These five key factors include:
1. Reliability. The ability of the organization and its employees to deliver service
consistently, reliably and accurately.
2. Responsiveness. The willingness of the organization’s employees to provide prompt
service and help customers.
3. Assurance. The employee’s knowledge, courtesy and ability to convey trust.
4. Empathy. The employee’s willingness to provide caring and individualized attention to
each other. “putting yourself in other’s shoes”
5. Tangibles. Address the appearance of the service employee.
Employee Training
Hospitality organizations face the challenge of training not only in the required job or task skills;
they must also teach the server how to solve inevitable problems creatively and how to interact
positively with the guests.
Three exemplary training programs that show how outstanding organizations train their
employees.
1. Training at Starwood Hotels ( Sheraton, Le Meridien, Westin, Element, W Hotels, Aloft
Hotels, St. Regis, Four Points by Sheraton, The Luxury Collection).
-Service Culture Training which involves three phases. 1. What it means to be on
brand, 2. Bring the brand’s core value to life, 3. Living the brand.
2. Training at Disney.
-Disney’s training program is made mandatory from all new employees. The
program teaches everyone the company’s history, achievements, quality standards
and philosophy.
Four Parts of the Disney Mission in their order of importance:
o Safety
o Courtesy
o Show
o Efficiency
3. Wall-to-Wall Training at Scandinavian Airline Services.
- The value of including all the employees in the training program creates total
organizational enthusiasm for service.
Berry’s Five Training Principles
Five Key Principles in Developing an effective Strategy
1. Focus on Critical Skills and knowledge. This involves identifying skills employees
must have.
2. Start Strong and teach the big picture. Teaching the big picture means teaching the
employees the organization’s values, purposes and culture and how, what they do helps
the organization achieve success.
3. Formalize Learning as a process. The process of building learning into the job, making
learning mandatory for everyone. Sending a strong message to employees that learning is
vital to the organization and everyone must participate.
4. Use multiple learning approaches. Because different employees, learn differently, using
a variety of learning approaches is important.
5. Seek continuous improvement. Employees must have continuous commitment towards
improvement
Developing a Training Program
Training should always be preceded by a needs assessment to determine perceived organizational
problems or weaknesses should be addressed by training or some other strategy.
Training Methods
1. Mentoring A formal relationship between junior and
senior colleagues. The mentor gives advice
regarding functioning in the organization and
career development.
2. Coaching One person who has necessary knowledge
instructs other individuals on a one-to-one or
small group basis.
3. Apprenticeship Trainees spend a set period of time learning a
craft or trade under the guidance of an
experienced master.
4. On-the-job training The employee learns the job by doing. The
individual is placed in the work situation and a
supervisor instructs the employee on how the
job is done directly at the work station.
5. Cross-functional training The trainee moves through a series of job
assignments over specific time frames
6. Classroom Training Content is delivered to trainees using a lecture-
based format.
7. Simulation The employee practices the job in a simulated
work environment.
8. Audio visual training Training using a video, such as through DVDs
or online content.
9. Computer-assisted instruction A computer program guides the trainee through
a pre-programmed training course. The training
is conducted on a computer.
10. Training at home Self-paced and self-directed learning where
individuals learn the material in his or her own
time, and away from the job site.
Pastry Chef Apprenticeship
Mock-up hotel room which can be used for simulation
Audio-Visual Training of Cebu Pacific Flight Attendants
Flight Simulation
Classroom Training for Flight Attendant of Vietnam Air
Computer-Assisted Instruction for a Hotel Front Office
Measuring Training Effectiveness
Four basic measurement methods are available to assess training’s effectiveness.
1. Participant Feedback
Ask the participants how they feel about it. They fill out questionnaires based on general
evaluation criteria.
2. Content Mastery
If the point of the training was to learn a specific skill, competency or content area, it
should be possible to design a test to determine whether participants learned what they
were supposed to learn.
3. Behavioral Change
Assess the behavioural change in the participant. As the saying goes, “use it or lose it”. It
is important that participants actually do the training and then determine if there were
changes.
4. Organization Performance
The ultimate and most sophisticated level of evaluating training is to watch what happens
to the measures of overall organizational performance.
Employee Development
Hospitality organization provide many opportunities for employees to grow and develop, they
give employees the chance to work their way up through their individual efforts. Employee
growth can be facilitated by means of the many techniques discussed in this unit
Employee development involves a combination of work experience, education and training.
As Norman Brinker said “People either shrivel or grow. Commit to helping people help
themselves.”
And Walt Disney stated “Get in. Be part of it and then move up!”
Current hospitality organization leaders should make it possible to employees with ambition,
ability and willingness to rise as high as they want to.
Unit Activity/Exercise
Quiz
Case Study